Question

How do I wean my baby from the breast?

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My 9-month-old still wants to nurse every two hours at night -- and he's growing more demanding during the day. If I don't feed him, he goes ballistic. I know he's at an age when he may be feeling some separation anxiety, but I'm really frustrated that he refuses to drink from a bottle or cup, or be comforted by his dad. How do I wean him when he's not open to any other options? I don't want to upset him, but I can't do this anymore.

Mom Answers

I see so many parents worried about their babies who dont drink bottles. That was me a couple of months ago. I tried for 3 long days,,that means nothing but the bottle, and in the meanwhile i would pump cause I didnt (still dont)wanna stop nursing him. My baby boy finally takes the bottle now, looves his water in the Avent sipcup and his favorite; Nuby that i got from walmart.. it only costs like 2 dollars! Also try parents choice formula (the other ones are yucky!!) and for juices try to make with real fruits. Pears, apples, watermellow you name it, papaya ecc.. so easy and a lot cheaper! My Americans friends.. please, try not to offer "fast food" for your little ones already. Steamers and hand blander are great and endeup a lot cheaper than jar food! My son only got a cold once in 9 months. P.S. if your little one dont want bottles, dont worry about it, try the sipcups every day and after they are 1 yr old they dont need more than 8 oz anyways! Good Luck!

This is an answer for all those working moms out there. My son is now 9 months old and we just finished weaning. However my son would not nurse from the time he was born he just wanted to look around not at me or he would fall asleep as soon as he latched on. So for 9 months I pumped and we fed him from a bottle. I went back to work full time when he was 2 months old and was pumping 3 times a day. At first I pumped when he was hungry but after one month of that i was so tired that I was ready to quit. So I came up with my own schedule of pumping once every 8 hours for 10 mns on each side. Not only did my milk supply increase but becuase i was actually getting some sleep I felt better and was able to get thru the day without falling asleep at my desk. Our doc said whatever worked for us was the right thing to do. This worked for us and might work for someone else. When it came time to switch to formula we gradually introduced formula into his bottle. He took it no problem.

I just weaned my 4 month old from the breast because I have to start working again. What I did is feed her 1/2 formula, 1/2 breast milk every other feeding and then after a couple days did that at every two feedings then gave her the breast. She was very upset at first but as the feedings went on she got over it. Then I only nursed her at night to relieve my engourgement. Now I am only feeding her formula and she takes it no problem. Do it gradually, because drying up hurts so bad. Good Luck Ladies!

I breastfeed and bottlefeed for my baby since him just was born. When he turn 3 mths, he didn't want the bottle anymore and that time I was going to back work. It was very hard time for me. He fight with me every time I give him bottle. I try any kind of nipple from Event, Naturalatch,Nuk..but it didn't work. I am very frustrated and cry many time. It last about a month I try the bottle every day and he just play with it. I thought he never take the bottle anymore. Luckily, he turns 4 months now, I found the MAM nipple online which just sell online << baby-Wise.com >> My baby take it at the first time in a swing, after 10 minute I distract him by toys. I can 't hold him because he will fight to get my breast.What a miracle niplle! This is the fifth day he take the bottle.The MAM nipple design for baby transfer from breast to bottle and it doesn't to make baby confuse. If you have EVENT bottle, just buy the MAM nipple. MAM bottle can't put in warm machine and it's leak. Good luck.

Before I had my daughter, all of my sisters-in-law recommended the book "Babywise". I must say, this book worked great! Its key focus is how to put your baby on a feeding/sleeping schedule, but to be flexible, because every child is different. If you are too rigid in following the advice given, it won't work for you. One of my SIL's admits that she practically starved he daughter by trying to follow a strict schedule. My daughter began sleeping through the night at 9 weeks old. I exclusively breastfed, though I did have my husband introduce a bottle at 4 weeks because we had an upcoming wedding to attend, and she would need to be bottle-fed all day. Since returning to work, I nurse in the morning, when I get home, and before bed, and I pump so she still gets breastmilk during the day in bottles. She is now 8 months, and during the past 2 weeks, I haven't been able to pump as much milk. I just learned why-I'm pregnant again! I'm going to try to keep nursing till she turns 1.

The lactation consultant that we had at the hospital suggested feeding 1 bottle of expressed breastmilk a day around 3 weeks of age. Our son has no problems being fed b milk from a bottle from me or anyone else, the lacation consultant also suggested that we use a slower flow nipple to make him work for it so he won't prefer the ease of the bottle over the breast. It worked for us.

I've been breastfeeding my daughter for 7 months and also giving her formula from a sippy cup as she wouldn't take a bottle. I would normally breastfeed her before putting her to bed at night; when she wakes up in the a.m. and before naptimes. These past 3 days for some reason, she refuses my breast..i THOUGHT in the beginning that she's just not hungry but the first morning when I knew she's normally hungry, I tried to give her my breast and she wouldn't suck it but instead she looked like she's going to throw up. Then I made her some formula and she finished it like there's no tomorrow. It's been 3 days now and I accepted that fact that she'd wean herself off the breastmilk.
My concern is my breasts--they're so hard and painful that I can't even hug my daughter as her body presses on my breasts.. Can you tell me from your own experience that it should be ok? that I don't have to do anything? Thanks in advance...

I never thought I would get my son to wean b/c he refused bottles & waited for me to get home from work to nurse. Finally I discovered he would atleast play with the nuby brand sippy cup and liquid would come out when he bit the nipple, or if we held up a normal sippy cup with the valve removed to allow us to "pour" the breast milk into his mouth with little mess. This was easier than the standard cup which was messy for me. I gradually started cutting back nursing sessions at 8 months to only 2-3 sessions per day, usually right when I got home from work, before bed, and one very early morning feeding (3am). At 10 months we were down to 2 feedings, and glad to say at a year old he weaned completely. He was ready and so was I. We were down to a bedtime only feeding at 11mo and at 12 mo I put him down one night without offering the breast, and he didn't seem to notice one bit. I would let him "sample" if he acted like he wanted to nurse, but he quickly lost interest after 10-20 sec.

I went back to work when my son was 6 weeks old and I was stressed about establishing a good breastfeeding routine before I went back.I set a goal of 6 months for myself.I pumped at work usually twice during the day, but it wasn't fun. So when I reached 6 months I was ready to stop pumping but not ready to stop breasfeeding.I figured we go as long as possible and just let my body readjust to a nighttime routine.That worked for a while until my son started teething and also biting.His first two teeth came in and we got through it, but about a month later he started biting again and this time it was almost with every feeding.He also nursed throughout the night(which my husband wasn't happy about)...so I decided maybe it was time to stop nursing. But as soon as I made the decision I was very sad which surprised me.It felt like we were "breaking up." I'm getting used to the idea, but it's been hard. I do like the idea of sleeping more at night but i miss our closeness.

I really sympathise-as I have a 9.5 mth old who was doing the exact same.He actually went from sleeping through the night 3 months ago-back to breastfeeding 4 hourly at night! and this also impacted his solid eating negatively! What we did - (I did it with my 3 year old also) It is not for all - but letting him "cry it out" worked for us (again!).(I'd rather the 5 nights we had interrupted with crying, than more months of interrupted sleep-when I knew he was able to sleep through.) So, we just let him cry it out!! The first 2 nights we let him cry for 30mins each feed before b.feeding again-and yes the crying gets loud and upset-but then the sleeps started to get longer in between and cries subsided quicker and now sleeps through again.He currently still b.feeds 4x a day (5am, 9am, 2pm, 6pm), and I'm going to start to drop one of these per week/fortnight shortly and replace with more solids. Worked for me - but I know its not for all. Good Luck.

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